Scarborough: Trump restarting coronavirus briefings could be ‘political catastrophe’ for campaign

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough on Tuesday predicted it would be “a political catastrophe for his campaign” if President Trump renews his coronavirus briefings, as he is expected to do later in the day. 

Scarborough, the host of “Morning Joe,” said the beginning of Trump’s slide in the polls was when he began doing the daily briefings. 

Trump is set to hold a news conference at 5 p.m. on Tuesday that is expected to serve as the return to the coronavirus briefings. 

Scarborough got on the topic after comments from MSNBC’s John Heilemann on the briefings. 

Heilemann said Trump views himself as “a persuasive, powerful spokesman,” saying that’s why Trump was resuming the briefings. 

“So he’s remounting the stage now because he thinks he will do a better job than anyone else explaining what’s going on with this thing, why it’s not anything to be feared, why it’s fake news and why we’re all overblowing it, and why America is doing great,” he said. “I think he thinks he’s the best messenger for himself. I don’t think that he thinks he was a disaster politically back in the winter and spring.”

“It would be even more of a political catastrophe for his campaign if that were, in fact, the course he chose,” Scarborough, a fierce Trump critic, responded. “Because, of course, those briefings were the beginning of his slide.”

Trump stood at 47.4 percent approval in the RealClearPolitics index of polls on April 1, not long after the pandemic shut down most of the country.

He has dropped more than 5 points since and stands at 42.1 percent approval while trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by 8.6 points nationally in the same index.

Trump gave up the daily coronavirus briefings after he stirred controversy at an April 23 briefing when he suggested that it might be possible to inject people with disinfectants of some sort to beat the coronavirus.

“With every briefing he made, every time he went off script, he provided, and we predicted at the time, he provided the sound bite that his opponents would use against him in the fall and, of course, that’s where we’ve got so many of his quotes, errant quotes talking about it’s not coming back in the fall, using bleach, using UV lights, hydroxychloroquine,” Scarborough added.

Trump also told reporters on Monday he may invite the heads of companies spearheading vaccine development to speak at the briefing.

“I think it’s a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are with the vaccine, with the therapeutics, and generally speaking where we are,” Trump said. “So I think we’ll start that, probably starting tomorrow.”